The Drillimation Series: Magical Girl Team Lucky Star
:This article is about the anime series. For the franchise as a whole, see Lucky Star. , also referred to or is a Japanese anime series created by Hiroshi Takajima for Drillimation Studios. Unlike the other Drillimation productions, this series is geared more towards a female audience. It stars the female protagonist Konata Izumi and is the first Drillimation series to have a female protagonist. The plot involves Konata's objective to overcome obstactles as a magical girl and to defeat the evil ninja sorcerer hacker Keel Sark who killed Konata's mother when she was an infant. The anime first aired on February 22, 1981 and ended its run on February 15, 1987. After the series became an initial success in Japan, North American company Harmony Gold produced an English dub of the anime, which aired on ABC's Saturday Morning block from 1990 to 1996. Reruns of previous episodes are also being shown on UltraToons Network. Synopsis When the anime debuted in North America in 1990, the October 1989 issue of Drillimation Insider included the following synopsis: :16-year-old Konata Izumi has been poorly treated by her abusive father, but it will all change when Konata and her parents become the new monarch of the Lucky Star Kingdom. Konata and her friends are always up for a slice-of-life adventure, but one day when Konata receives a magical pearl, she and her friends' lives will be changed forever. Plot The story revolves around a magical girl named Konata Izumi, a 16-year-old girl from Satte, Saitama and her journey at Ryou Gakuen High School of Magic and Drilling, who must overcome dangerous obstacles and to defeat Dr. Manhole for killing her mother when she was an infant. At the end of her first year, she finds out the Lucky Star Kingdom was in peril because of the king and queen's death that occurred two years prior. She is reinstated as the princess of the kingdom and Konata's mother is revived by Driller's sorcery to reinstate it. She later meets a boy named Susumu Hori, who is Drillimation's mascot. She instantly falls in love with him and thinks she wants to marry him in the future, but the evil Team Ankoku want to try and take over the kingdom by plastering it with destructive imagery and cursing everyone. Konata and friends are sent to fight Team Ankoku and destroy Dr. Manhole's database. As the story progresses, Konata and Susumu's relationship develop even more, and Team Ankoku wants to try and make Konata lose her beauty by trying to tarnish her life. As Konata gains more experience, her keen grows more beautiful. Konata's cousin, Yutaka Zhong, comes to live at her house and becomes a magical girl as well. During a battle with a Team Ankoku mecha while Konata was charging the Lightning Rod, Yutaka Zhong, as well as her friends Minami, Patricia, and Hiyori join in charging the rod. Before unleashing its power, the power she obtained from Yutaka's team caused Konata to evolve into Neo Princess Konata. At the end of Konata's fourth year in Ryou Gakuen High School of Magic and Drilling, the group, as well as Yutaka's team, go to Creation Universe Anaheim to celebrate their graduation. During the trip, they encounter Dr. Manhole who tries to sabotage the park. Thanks to the Magical Girl Team Lucky Star, Dr. Manhole was arrested and detained. During Manhole's time in prison, Manhole breaks free and launches an all-out attack on Japan. As the battle ongoes, the group descend into the Endworld. In the Endworld, where they find out Keel Sark has transformed into a youkai. When they get there, they find Yutaka's team started battling Keel. After the fight, Konata gets a mysterious purple ring with a ruby on it. She had no idea what it meant, but according to online research, the ring meant she was going to become the next queen of the kingdom. Susumu gets it too, which would make him become the future king. After a long fight against Dr. Manhole, the two are married and become the next monarch of the Lucky Star Kingdom. Episode List :Main Article: List of Magical Girl Team Lucky Star Episodes The anime consists of six seasons with 52 episodes each. Each episode is broken down into two parts called "acts", which last 10-11 minutes long. Almost every episode's title is a parody of a classical book or story. Characters Development Development for a magical girl series by Drillimation Studios began in 1978 during the last season of Space Ninja Team Star Trigon. After the series finished in February 1979, Takajima decided whether not to continue with a new series, and decided to take a break. In addition, his second son Susumu Takajima, was born in October of the same year. While planning the new series in the summer of 1979, Takajima had trouble thinking of ideas for characters. Drillimation Studios had recently hired a young man named Kagami Yoshimizu, who recently graduated from college. Yoshimizu helped Takajima fix his troubles by having a four-member squad of girls fighting Team Ankoku. Yoshimizu also helped Takajima with the creation of Konata, as well as Kagami and Tsukasa. Miyuki Takara, who had played a big role in Space Ninja Team Star Trigon, got to reprise her role as part of the Magical Girl Team Lucky Star. Surprisingly, during the first season of Space Ninja Team Star Trigon, Drillimation Studios held a character contest where Wataru had to have a girl help him in his challenges, and Yoshimizu's character, Miyuki, was his contest entry. Surprisingly, he won, and Miyuki got a big role in the series. Inspiration for the story of Magical Girl Team Lucky Star actually came from a Drillimation engineer's true story. The idea for the death of Konata's mother came from the engineer's wife being murdered when their daughter was five months old. His daughter also dreamed of being a magical girl as well, what inspired the series with. The animator was being abusive to his teenage daughter who wouldn't let her go out and socialize with friends. He also remembers his daughter going to prom with this one boy who was a first-year student while she was a second-year student at that time, and even though most people who attend prom don't do this, his daughter wore long gloves to the party. Surprisingly, even though she didn't choose to be eligible for court, she was crowned prom queen at that time. His daughter later married that boy she went to prom with, now living in Nagoya. The animation for the anime was partially inspired by Hanna-Barbera cartoons, while adding anime elements and cartoon physics for a few episodes. In 2003, Yoshimizu created a reboot of the series in a more realistic, magic-less world for the Comptiq magazine. Sure enough, it was successful, causing Kyoto Animation, Drillimation Studios' animation department to produce remakes of 24 select episodes from the first and second seasons of the series using Yoshimizu's new style. New audio was recorded over the old audio, and Susumu Hori did not get to reprise his role in the reboot. Category:Anime Category:Animes Category:Magical Girl Series Category:Drillimation Category:TV Series Category:Television shows Category:Fanon television shows Category:Television series